Algonquin Books Blog

In her “Personal Health” column in Tuesday’s New York Times, Jane Brody wrote, “I urge you to read the best-selling bookLast Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, who coined the phrase ‘nature-deficit disorder.’” We agree! The article, about the negative effects of our decreasing physical activity and growing disconnect with the natural environment, also mentions President Obama’s Great Outdoors Initiative, in which Rich Louv’s grass-roots organization the Children & Nature Network had a hand.

Media exposure, of course, is nothing new for Rich—his last book garnered more attention than any book Algonquin has ever published. More exciting for us is that Rich’s new book, THE NATURE PRINCIPLE: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder, due out in April, offers fascinating evidence that by tapping the power of the natural world, all of us, children and adults alike, can boost mental acuity and creativity, heal illness, increase immunity, broaden our compassion, and strengthen human bonds. Robert Michael Pyle, author of The Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland and Mariposa Road praises Richard Louv’s new book:

“In The Nature Principle, Rich Louv has given us once again exactly the book we most need, for now and for all time. Our expanding species hasn’t a chance to continue living well and happily in a finite world unless we adapt our hungry lives to the rest of nature better than we have. This elegant, original, good-humored, and stunningly thorough work shows us our way home in the world: it is no less than a new Law of Nature, and we had better pay attention.”

Be prepared to read more about THE NATURE PRINCIPLE this coming April–if the last book is any indication, there’s going to be a firestorm of media coverage.